98 DAYS UNTIL THE ELECTION NINETY. EIGHT. DAYS.
“My last ask is the same as my first. I'm asking you to believe — not in my ability to create change, but in yours.”
~ President Barack Obama, January 11, 2017
We’ve come a long way from January 2017. We’ve done a lot of phenomenal work that has helped produce some outstanding results, like the 2018 midterm blue wave. Now’s the time to give it everything we’ve got to keep the House, take back the Senate, and kick Trump out of the White House.
You might appreciate this open letter to President Obama written back in January 2017. The author lamented that he had taken our Democracy for granted during the Obama years, being outraged by what the Republicans were doing but assuming Obama’s “got this.” I have to say I thought the same way. After Trump was elected the writer knew he had to make a change and start working for it. He ends the letter with this: “Mr. President, thank you again for all you’ve done. Now it’s our turn. We’ve got this.” We've shown "we've got this," but now it's time to pour on the effort.
So let’s talk about phone banking. We at Indivisible HQ are planning a big effort to phone bank and text bank – starting tonight. You might hesitate to sign up, but honestly, on November 4 do you really want to say you didn’t give it your all? No you do not. Now's the time to get out of our collective comfort zones.
You have questions about phone banking. We have answers.
Q. Is it worth it to make these calls?
A. Yes! We can’t canvass because of the pandemic and the data show the next best voter turnout tool is phone banking. It’s all about reaching a collective group we’re calling and engaging with them – the person to person conversation.
Q. What if I don’t know how to do it?
A. We'll have a training at the beginning of the session and answer all your questions. And we’ll all be on Zoom together (muted during the calls) and we’ll chat during the session.
Q. What if they hang up on me?
A. It’s not personal. You just move on to the next voter. And they may have just been busy at the moment. We find that now with so many people sitting at home bored (and watching the news, horrified) they are more likely to answer and chat anyway.
Q. What if I stumble over my words?
A. We all stumble over our words a bit. It makes you human and it’s not a problem at all. You’ll get better quickly with practice.
Q. Is it a problem that I don’t live where the voter lives?
A. Nope. Research shows that most people don’t care where you are calling from. And we are only calling voters in Pennsylvania. It’s more important to have the conversation.
Let’s get to it and call Pennsylvania voters for Joe Biden. We’ll be on Zoom having a good time together. We’ll have a quick training to begin. Once you sign up we’ll send you all the information for it.
When: TONIGHT at 6:00 PM; more to come soon!
Where – On Zoom
NEW FUNDRAISING MATCH PROGRAM
It’s on – Indivisible’s matching fundraising program! All of your donations made to our group will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $350.00. Click here to make your donation to support our postcard project and our other actions to get out the vote in November. DONATE NOW
CALL TO ACTION
Sen. Casey – Phila office 215-405-9660; D.C. office 202-224-6324; email link
Sen. Toomey – Phila office 215-241-1090; D.C. office 202-224-4254; email link
National -- Pass The Heroes Act
The House passed the Heroes Act on May 15. It took until yesterday for the Republicans to get their act together and release their idea of what recovery during the pandemic should look like. The Senate bill, the HEALS Act, includes some good lobbyist wish list items but not a lot for humans. Check out what their coronavirus pandemic relieve package looks like.
Liability Protection for companies (meaning no legal recourse to sue your employers for COVID related illness or death)
BUT no hazard pay for essential workers
$1.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection
BUT no protections for immigrants (unlike the Heroes Act).
$2 billion for military hardware
BUT not one dollar for the USPS or election protection
$2 billion for a new FBI building across the street from Trump's hotel (apparently, even Mitch McConnell was surprised by this one)
BUT it CUTS unemployment insurance from $600 to $200 and fails to fully fund state and local governments.
Call our senators and demand they pass the Heroes Act without watering it down. You can see the details of the spending in the Heroes Act in our earlier newsletters here and here.
Local -- Call To Demand A Safe And Secure Election
It’s time to call the City Commissioners, the Mayor and City Council and tell them they need to act now to ensure our votes in November are protected. Tell them you demand they invest in staff and equipment to secure mail-in ballot counting and safe polling places. We can’t allow voters to be disenfranchised or cast doubt on the election’s validity.
Commissioner Lisa Deeley: (215) 686-3460, 3461
Commissioner Al Schmidt: (215) 686-3464, 3467
Commissioner Omar Sabir: (215) 686-3462, 3463
Mayor Kenney: (215) 686-2181
City Council President Darrell Clarke: (215) 686-3442, 3443
Find your City Council person here
Read about the problems with vote counting in the Primary election documented by our partner Protect Our Vote Philly and set forth in a letter to the City Commissioners, which IndivisiblePhiladelphia signed.
CENSUS
Here’s your reminder to fill out your Census form if you haven’t yet. Philadelphia will lose $21,000 per city resident (over 10 years) for every person NOT counted in the Census. Help shape the future of Philadelphia for the next ten years by getting counted!
Fill it out, or better yet fill it out online – now. If you have any questions you can go to www.census.gov or call 844-330-2020.
POSTCARDS!
Here are some stats for our VBM postcard project at almost the halfway mark.
Check out all the details, including cool maps, in our newsletter to our postcard writers at this link.
62 – The number of Philly wards we’ve sent addresses for.
450+ – The number of our volunteers writing postcards.
64,950 – The number of postcard addresses we’ve sent to our volunteers so far.
50,000 – The number of addresses we’ve sent as part of our project to a group in Ithaca, NY. They are a group of artists who design postcards urging voters to get to the polls.
That’s a total of over 110,000 postcards – and counting…
Click this link to join our awesome team!
Read about our beautiful artist-created postcards here.
Here’s how it works:
1. We will supply you with our fabulous original art postcards for free. You will need to only purchase 35-cent postcard stamps at this link.
2. The script includes two pre-printed labels and we will deliver those to you with the postcards.
3. We will email you the instructions for writing the cards and the script.
4. You’ll write the postcards and mail them as you complete them.
5. Join a Zoom postcard party or write cards at home on your own. It all helps! You can also join our Zoom office hours to say hi and answer questions, and some other fun stuff along the way. See below.
Click this link to sign up.
Virtual Postcard Events
The Zoom info will be in your confirmation email.
For easy access, all of our events are at this link.
Every Wednesday Virtual Cards & Coffee – See you tomorrow!
Sign up for any Wednesday – Pick the date you want when you sign up, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (stay for as long as you want). Sign up here.
Every Thursday Virtual Cards & Cocktails
Sign up for any Thursday – Pick the date you want when you sign up. 6-8 pm (stay for as long as you want). Sign up here.
Every Sunday Brunch Office Hours – Every Sunday 12:00 to 2:00 PM. Sign up here.
Every Sunday at noon we’ll meet on Zoom to chat at our Office Hours. You can drop in just to say hi, you can write postcards, ask some questions you might have, shoot the breeze, or have brunch with us, whatever. And if you haven’t signed up yet you can stop by and ask what it’s all about. We’ll be there!
Check out these gorgeous postcards! They were written by our fantastic partner Elaine and her group in San Francisco. They are writing thousands of postcards with us! Thank you Elaine and your team!
